Microsoft held its biggest video game booth ever at the Gamescom trade show in Germany on Wednesday, aiming to win over gamers after several difficult months of studio closures and rising fees.
“We’re running a business. And it’s certainly true within Microsoft, the bar is very high for us in terms of the delivery we have to give back to the company,” Xbox chief Phil Spencer said during a live event at the show.
“There’s a lot of pressure on the industry. It’s been growing for a long time and now people are looking for ways to grow,” he added, defending the US giant’s strategy.
Microsoft surprised fans on Tuesday when it announced that its year-end blockbuster “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle,” originally intended to be exclusive to its Xbox console, will also be available on rival Sony’s PlayStation 5 on spring of 2025.
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The decision follows a shift that began in February with four of its games available on rival consoles, marking a strategic shift to attract players to Xbox with exclusive titles.
The move is aimed at boosting the profitability of its games amid signs of sluggish console sales.
“Big Bet”
After completing its $69 billion acquisition in October of game publisher Activision Blizzard, maker of gaming hits like “Call of Duty” and “Candy Crush,” Microsoft faced a series of obstacles.
The acquisition led to 1,900 job cuts in January.
Then in May, Microsoft closed four of the publisher Bethesda studios, which it acquired in 2020 as part of a $7.5 billion investment.
The announcement of the upcoming release of “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6,” the first in the series to be available on Microsoft’s Game Pass platform, coincided with an increase in service fees.
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At the end of February, the service had about 34 million users, well short of its goal of reaching 100 million customers by 2030.
The move to launch Call of Duty on Game Pass is Microsoft “pushing all of its brands,” said Mat Piscatella, an analyst at market research firm Circana. “That’s their big bet.”
Call of Duty’s performance on the platform will determine the future of the formula and its sustainability, he said.
“I think it’s evolving as the subscription market hasn’t grown at the rate that some people expected,” Piscatella said.
Microsoft also announced Wednesday that new versions of its consoles introduced in June, which include the Xbox Series X without a Blu-ray player, will be available from October 15.
Source: AFP